Outlines a text-based, interactionist approach toward writing and written communication. A brief analysis of the working drafts and revisions of a first-year college student's essay is offered to illustrate how key textual features function reflexively to establish and sustain the evolving but mutually held rational grounds of school writing and…

Discusses an unsuccessful English 101 writing assignment in which students were asked to analyze a Gary Larson cartoon. Examines critically the type of assignment that seeks to address and incorporate the student writer's "local knowledge" of cultural texts, while at the same time containing what counts as knowledge within limited parameters of…

Presents a teaching strategy that bridges expressivism and social constructionism. Discusses finding the sociopolitical and the cultural in the personal and describes seven steps centered on storytelling and autobiographical writing by which students connect their cultural backgrounds, their own individual ideas and values, and those of mainstream…

Argues that understanding assignments is the first step toward successful college writing. Urges instructors to support students by helping them to decode assignments. Breaks down instructions into individual tasks including (1) writing an essay, (2) examining an issue, (3) reviewing articles and books, and (4) focusing on some texts. Defines each…

Suggests the bachelor's paper as an alternative to testing for sociology majors. Explains that the paper enables the student to use the discipline's theoretical and methodological tools to address an important topic. Explores the advantages and disadvantages of the paper. Suggests that the assignment promotes assessment both of the student and the…

Summarizes a student-conducted telephone survey involving 200 interviews on the topic of dating. Describes the process of organizing and carrying out the survey. Notes that the project was exciting and beneficial for both students and professionals involved. (HB)

This paper suggests an inexpensive way for encouraging discussions of experimental design and data interpretation for all grade levels. The discussion begins with the presentation of a graph or table from the scientific literature. Questions are then asked in six steps to promote an understanding of the information contained. (PR)

Describes two activities in a second-grade class that use drawing and writing to explore fractions. (SR)

Gives seven responses from practicing English teachers concerning ways that they have implemented the writing of various kinds of letters by students into the English curriculum. Demonstrates the efficacy and success of such methods. (HB)

Offers a range of classroom, writing, research, and small-group activities on racial issues for the social studies classroom. Deals with stereotypes, racial issues at school and beyond the classroom, and building alliances. (SR)

Describes a student research project in a business communication course in which student researchers practice a wide variety of communication skills (oral communication, research, writing, and professional writing skills) as they manipulate their collected data into a persuasive report. (SR)

Describes an assignment in writing documentation that turns the classroom into a laboratory for usability testing, giving students a clear sense of the reader responding to their text. (SR)

Discusses Guam's unique multicultural student and teacher population. Describes two classroom language arts activities (the method of taped repeated reading and "write around") that have met with success and continue to gain momentum in Guam's classrooms. (RS)

Suggests that developmental writing courses that emphasize transactional writing with assignments directly related to general education courses increase the motivation of students to take the developmental writing assignments seriously, realize that writing skills contribute to academic success, and transfer these writing skills to the written…

Describes a successful program of "contemplation writing," in which, through a counting technique and a music technique, children learn how to contemplate their inner experience, write about it, and discuss it. (SR)